Sushil Kumar Shinde denies having uttered ‘Hindu terrorism’ in Parliament

Pune: Former Union Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde on Saturday denied having used the word "Hindu terrorism" in Parliament during the UPA tenure.

"I never used the word Hindu terrorism in Parliament. I had used it in the Jaipur session of Congress but I withdrew it immediately," he told reporters on the sidelines of a function here.

Shinde's statement came in the backdrop of the claim by Union Home minister Rajanth Singh who said the government's fight against terrorism got weakened after the use of the word by the UPA government.

Shinde said the NDA government was trying to divert attention from its own "inaction" in handling terrorism in the wake of the Gurdaspur attack.

On Friday, Singh, after making a statement in the Lok Sabha on the July 27 attack had said that the previous UPA government had coined the term "Hindu terrorism", to change the course of probe into the incidents of terrorism while accusing the Congress of weakening the fight against terror.

Shinde alleged that terrorism in the country got a boost after the hijacking of the flight to Kandahar (leading to release of some terrorists) during the NDA rule.

He said this was followed later by attack on the Jammu and Kashmir assembly and attack on the Parliament house.